Music

Sep 02, 2011, 08:20AM

Lil Wayne Officially Sucks

Tha Carter IV goes a long way to proving how insignificant and lazy Weezy's become.

Finally! Definitive proof that Lil Wayne isn’t a shadow of
the man every white rock critic once claimed he was. His latest, Tha Carter IV, is an embarrassment, an
unfunny joke played on no one at all. To say it’s a mess would be an affront to
all just spills, stains, and blemishes out there without a fighting chance. Lil
Wayne is one of the most famous rappers alive and this is what he came up with?
It actually makes me angry how punishingly mediocre and uninspired this release
is, considering how much undeserved leeway the media gives this idiot. Lil Wayne
isn’t a genius, and he’s certainly not an artist—he’s a schmuck with a
microphone, leaning into nothing.

Tha Carter III was
a great record for what it was—pop party anthems, with a lot of interesting and
silly lyricism that didn’t say much but certainly was wacky! “A Milli,” “Lollipop,” and “Got Money” are all pop classics,
but to say this guy was ever anything more than a passing curio is insane. I’ve
seen the work he put out through ‘05-‘08 described as his “Untouchable Era,” as
if Weezy is fucking Mozart or Chopin. The dude put out some good pop and spat
(Hey look! I can use street terminology and still look like a massive douchebag!), some crazy stupid verses, but he
never reached the heights of Nas, Biggie, or Wu-Tang. And of course most of the
praise of Wayne’s lyrics ranges from half-hearted to shameless ironic
enjoyment, so bad it’s good. That’s
fine, but being ironically interesting isn’t
even close to being an actual artist.

“Well if life is a bitch, then mine’s a gold digger/Yea and
my bitches nasty like cold dinner/Everyday I go so hard and work my ass off/I’m
good, I’m 100, I’m like a fastball Carter IV.” Tell me this isn’t the work of
something drinking lean by the bucket. Fuck you, Lil Wayne. You have millions
of dollars, legions of fans, freedom from prison, and one of the most
anticipated albums of the year, and the best song on your record is the single
that came out almost a year ago. “6 Foot 7 Foot” is another great pop song, but
the rest of this mess is filled with boring, bland beats and even more vanilla
braggadocio. There are only so many ways you can write the same I AM BETTER THAN YOU verse, and Wayne
has run dry. The most infuriating part is that he’s so clearly not even trying.
He doesn’t give a shit about his fans; clearly they mean nothing to him if he
expects them to believe this a labor of love worth paying for.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, we all knew this was coming. The
media’s infatuation with Wayne made it seem like he was capable, even on the
way to making the next Illmatic. But
that’s asking a lot—I would’ve been perfectly happy with another Carter III quality record. On Tha Carter IV, Wayne shows who he truly
is: an airhead, a ditz, a drug addict with money to burn; and simultaneously,
he proves every critic wrong. Lil Wayne is a joke, and no one’s laughing.